Vending machines are a very popular method of selling merchandise. Bulk venders, for example, in which a metered amount of product stored in bulk in a bin is dispensed upon payment of a required amount of money, can be used for the self-service purchase of myriad types of products. Such vending machines provide a cost-effective means of selling bulk product, in part because they can be located in unsupervised locations and therefore involve very low overhead.
One of the consequences of locating a vending machine in an unsupervised location is that there is no salesperson to attract purchasers or interest prospective customers in the products being vended. The vending machine itself must have a sufficiently interesting and appealing presence to attract purchasers and interest purchasers in the product. Bulk vending machines are nevertheless a popular means of selling small merchandise such as toys and confectionary, part of their popularity being in the entertainment value associated with the action of a purchaser and the visible reaction of the machine in the dispensing of bulk product. Children in particular are attracted by the visual appeal of bulk product displayed and the product dispensing process. As such, bulk vending machines virtually universally stock product in transparent bins for the visual appeal, and are often manufactured with very large product bins and/or elaborate dispensing paths made deliberately viewable by the purchaser, to increase visual appeal and entertainment value of the vending machine.
However, in today's electronic world the simple act of rotating a coin mechanism in order to receive a treat is typically not sufficiently stimulating for children and adolescents, who are the primary target purchasers from such vending machines. Vending machines are accordingly evolving from simple mechanical devices which dispense treats, toys and other small articles responsive to receiving coins, tokens or the like, to large kiosk-style machines which offer a variety of types of merchandise. An example of such a vending kiosk is described and illustrated in PCT Publication No. WO2013/044364 to the present applicant, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Also, consumers in modern society are very health conscious, and when buying food products they need a high degree of confidence that they know the nutritional content of specific foodstuffs being purchased, and particularly the presence of any potential allergens or ingredients to which the purchaser may have a sensitivity. In some regions of the world regulations may require that the nutritional content and/or identification of ingredients of foodstuffs be provided to purchasers on food packages so that the information remains available after purchase of the product.
Furthermore, there is a need for versatility in the end product that can be vended from such vending machines, whereby a consumer has the opportunity to obtain more than merely the products that are physically contained within the vending machine. For example, many of today's products can be customized, or accompanied by selected additional features and/or offers based on demographic information from the consumer when in an interactive sales environment. This is not possible in a conventional vending machine, which is programmed to dispense only products physically contained within the vending machine and only in response to purchase requests entered by the purchaser.